Hangovers are a part of serious imbibing, as we were unpleasantly reminded the morning after our punch party last week. With New Years Eve nearly upon us, we wanted to offer a brief round up of strategies to help you cope the morning after:

Preventative Measures
As Pink Gin says, “You need to plan on the possibility that you’ll skip the night-before remedy. If you remember it, do you really need it?” Make these suggestions your mantra during the day while sober and you just may remember to follow them later in the evening:

Slow Your Roll Early: Have some nice, low alcohol sips in mind when you belly up to the bar. Cocktails made with low-alcohol liqueurs, like a Campari & soda, vermouth-based Half Sinner, Half Saint, or a San Francisco can keep you from getting too drunk too fast.

Water, water, water: Just do it. A glass between drinks is a good metric.

Eat. A Lot.: Eat a healthy portion of your dinner, even if you’re feeling full from all the water you’re drinking. You body will thank you. And, depending on how late you stay up, a second dinner might be appropriate.

Herbal Remedies as a Preemptive Strike: Take milk thistle before you start drinking (for your liver), B12 & B6 (for your hangover). One LUPEC pal swears by activated carbon pills: 2 with the first drink, one per each additional drink. All can be purchased at Whole Foods.

Morning-After Measures
Upon waking, you will likely need to ease into your day with a hearty breakfast, coconut water, ginger ale or beer, and a healthy dose of Advil. As Charles H. Baker writes of the “sort of human withering on the vine” that is the hangover in The Gentleman’s Companion, (repubbed as Jigger, Beaker, and Glass), the “Picker-Upper” is the only possible cure for when you feel “precisely like Death warmed up”: “We have…come to distrust all revivers smacking of drugdom. It is a small, tightly vicious cycle to get into, and a bit of well-aged spirits with this or that, seems much safer and more pleasant than corroding our innards with chemicals of violent proclivities, and possible habit-forming ways.”

After all, there are just two proven ways to never get a hangover: never start drinking or never stop. Once you’re ready for a little hair of the dog, any of these recipes should do:

Andy McNees’ Hangover Eraser Nos 1 & 2: For the original, build the following over ice in a pint glass: A shot of Fernet, two dashes of every kind of bitters on the bar, top with Soda water. Drink as quickly as you can through two straws like a Mind Eraser. See below for recipe No. 2.

Bloody Marys: There’s a good amount of vitamins in that there tomato juice.

Fizzes: During the pre-Prohibition heyday of the cocktail, the fizz held forth as the hangover cure de rigeur for sporting men. “Into the saloon you’d go, the kindly internist behind the bar would manipulate a bottle or two, and zam! There stood the glass packed with vitamins, proteins, and complex sugars, foaming brightly and aglow with the promise of sweet release,” writes David Wondrich in Imbibe! If you’ve never tried a Pink Lady before, now’s the time.

Good luck to you, dear readers! As Virginia Elliot and Phil D. Strong wrote in their 1930 volume Shake ‘Em Up, always remember to “Take cheer from the thought that if you are healthy enough to suffer acutely, you will probably live.”

In this week’s Dig column, we shared the story of the Bloody Mary, a cocktail that is perhaps the most popular eye-opener for modern brunchers. And by eye-opener, we mean Merriam-Webster’s definition No. 1:

eye–open·er: noun

1: a drink intended to wake one up

Daytime drinking may have fallen out of fashion in American culture, but there was a time when a morning tipple wouldn’t have branded you a layabout or a louse. Consider this treatise from Ernest P. Rawling’s RAWLING’S BOOK OF MIXED DRINKS (as quoted in David Wondrich’s IMBIBE) on the positive effects of the Fizz when taken early in the day:

“And in the ‘morning after the day before,’ when the whole world seems gray and lonesome, and every nerve and fibre of the body is throbbing a complaint against the indiscretion, just press the button and order a Gin Fizz — “Not too sweet, please!” It comes. Oh, shades of the green oasis in the sandy desert of life!”

Oh, wait. Hmmm…he seems to be talking about hangover cures. As Wondrich goes on to explain, a Fizz was the ‘Sporting Man’s’ breakfast of champions, a beverage to “moisten the clay with directly upon rising – an eye-opener, corpse-reviver, fog-cutter, gloom-lifter. A hangover cure…packed with vitamins, proteins…and complex sugars, foaming brightly and aglow with the promise of sweet relief.”

Hungover or not, we could all use a frothy glass of sweet relief every now and again. When in need, give one of these a try. The drink even has the word “Morning” etched into its nomenclature, perhaps to dispel any notions that drinking this before noon would be gauche. As Harry Johnson wrote in the recipe notes,” The author respectfully recommends the…drink as an excellent one for a morning beverage, which will give a good appetite and quiet the nerves.

Begin with the juices and 1 teaspoon or so of water in a mixing glass, stirring the sugar into it. Add shaved ice and shake vigorously; strain into a good sized bar-glass. Fill with soda water and serve.

Then of course, there is the Ramos Gin Fizz, a New Orleans eye-opener that can still be found on many a brunch menu today even outside the Crescent City. At one time, the popularity of this legendary combination of tough-to-emulsify ingredients necessitated a one-to-one bartender-to-“shaker boy” ratio at Carl Ramos’ Imperial Cabinet Saloon – a ‘shaker boy’ was a young black man whose job was to receive the ingredient-filled shaker from the bartender and shake the hell out of it. After relocating to the Stag Saloon, this epic cocktail was responsible for the jobs of 35 shakermen during Mardi Gras 1915, each passing the drink along to his neighbor once his arms grew weary. Again, with thanks to IMBIBE, here is the recipe adapted from Carl Ramos’ 1925 dictation to the New Orleans Item-Tribune

RAMOS GIN FIZZ/NEW ORLEANS FIZZ
1 tablespoonful powdered sugar (use superfine)
3 or 4 drops of orange flower water
1/2 lime (juice)
1/2 lemon (juice)
1.5 oz Old Tom Gin (finally available in Boston!)
white of One Egg
1/2 glass crushed ice
About 2 tablespoonsfull of rich milk or cream
About an ounce of seltzer water to make it pungent

Together well shaken and strained (drink freely)
“Shake and shake and shake until there is not a bubble left but the drink is smooth and snowy white and of the consistency of good rich milk,” Ramos told the reporter. Best to have someone mix one for you if you’re truly looking for a little hair of the dog in this glass.

On the subject of hangovers, Charles H. Baker offers 27 drinks called “Picker-Uppers” in his Gentleman’s Companion, (repubbed as Jigger, Beaker, and Glass), saying, “There are times in every man’s life when, through one reason or both, a man feels precisely like Death warmed up. In such sorry plight there is but one thing to do if we do not wish to sit and suffer through a whole day waiting for the cool hand of normalcy to stroke our dry and fevered brow — a Picker-Upper.” What follows is a fascinating list, atop which sits a unlikely suggestion: Drink Champagne.

Marches Champagne

A plain chilled pint of champagne per person with two or three simple biscuits is probably the finest picker-upper known to civilized man. The champagne must be very cold and can either have bitters, a little added brandy, or both…

Champagne in this role is somewhat more expensive than any of the other remedies collected, but when we think back there is stark realization that the time comes to every man when relative expense means little; and rather risk “turn” from the sight of raw egg, or taste of sweet ingredients, the refreshing, chill tartness of the bubbly is a dispenation straight from heaven.”

And how, Charles Baker!

Last but not least, here’s a recipe for the drink that they actually call the “Eye-Opener”, from the Savoy Cocktail Book: